Unrevoked 3.1 brings Android 2.2 to HTC Desire

Want Android 2.2 (Froyo) for your HTC Desire? Of course you do, and now you can get it, albeit not officially, thanks to some new software available online (where else).

Those who are happy to live on the dark side can download Unrevoked for the flagship HTC handset and with a couple of clicks and a dodgy ROM get your handset running the latest OS from Google, months ahead of the official update from HTC.

"unrevoked3 is a tool to flash a custom recovery image to your Android phone", explains the site, where you can get the all-powerful application. "A custom recovery image allows you to perform advanced tasks on the system partition, such as flashing custom ROMs and taking a full backup of your phone (a “nandroid” backup)".

The software, which is available for Mac, Windows and Linux users means that once you've found a "hooky 2.2 rom and an updated driver for the HTC radio", you are ready to go in about four clicks.

Of course, we should warn that by doing so you are likely to void your warranty and you'll be on your own when it comes to support.

Those looking to do this with the HTC Legend or HTC Wildfire are currently out of luck though:

"We have noticed that the core mechanisms behind unrevoked3 may apply to other rooted current-generation HTC phones running Android 2.1. At this time, the tool does not support other phones", says the team behind the software.

Stuart has been a tech journalist since 1998 and written for a number of publications around the world. Regularly turning up on television, radio and in newspapers, Stuart has played with virtually every gadget available.